[RTTY] First RTTY QRP Contest

[Bob, WB2COY]

This was an interesting contest from here in Upstate New York (75 miles 
north of NYC), although a lot of factors probably limited participation. I 
had only planned on working 20 meters in the second round at 8:30-11:30 am 
local time. The factors included DX activity by T2YY in Tuvalu and 9K2KH in 
Kuwait. T2YY was running split, which meant a lot of stations transmitting 
in the blind between about 14.086 and 14.090, effectively making that 
segment unusable. UN7ZL/7 from Kazakhstan also made an appearance above 
14.090, running simplex. I made a total of 5 contacts, all above 14.092. I 
did hear G6NHU in the lower portion od the band, but was unable to raise 
him, and DL4RCK, who I worked above 14.092, also spent some time calling CQ 
in the lower portion. DL4RCK had the loudest signal here at about S4.  I 
also heard ES7FU calling CQ, but was unable to make a contact. Factors on my 
end included minimal antennas, as I was using a G5RV only. I suspect that 
the stations I worked were probably using a beam aimed at NA. I didn't hear 
a single U.S. station either calling or answering a CQ.

I used RCKLOG with MMTTY and also ran an older version of 2Tone as a 
standalone receive only setup.  Copy went back and forth between the two 
decoders with one or the other printing usable data while the other printed 
garbled text. DL4RCK was the only station that printed consistently on both 
decoders simultaneously.

Hopefully, this contest will be better advertised if they decide to run it 
again next year! Thanks to IK1MEG, DL4RCK, OH2BBT, OH5KUY and IQ4RN for the 
contacts.

Bob, WB2COY